2 US Navy Sailors Charged with Providing Sensitive Military Information to China

US Attorney Randy S. Grossman for the Southern District of California, center, speaks during a press conference at the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of California on Thursday, Aug. 3, 2023, in San Diego. (AP)
US Attorney Randy S. Grossman for the Southern District of California, center, speaks during a press conference at the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of California on Thursday, Aug. 3, 2023, in San Diego. (AP)
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2 US Navy Sailors Charged with Providing Sensitive Military Information to China

US Attorney Randy S. Grossman for the Southern District of California, center, speaks during a press conference at the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of California on Thursday, Aug. 3, 2023, in San Diego. (AP)
US Attorney Randy S. Grossman for the Southern District of California, center, speaks during a press conference at the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of California on Thursday, Aug. 3, 2023, in San Diego. (AP)

Two US Navy sailors were charged Thursday with providing sensitive military information to China — including details on wartime exercises, naval operations and critical technical material.

The two sailors, both based in California, were charged with similar moves to provide sensitive intelligence to the Chinese. But they were separate cases, and it wasn’t clear if the two were courted or paid by the same Chinese intelligence officer as part of a larger scheme. Federal officials at a news conference in San Diego declined to specify whether the sailors were aware of each other's actions.

Both men pleaded not guilty in federal courts in San Diego and Los Angeles. They were ordered to be held until their detention hearings, which will take place Aug. 8 in those same cities.

US officials have for years expressed concern about the espionage threat they say the Chinese government poses, bringing criminal cases in recent years against Beijing intelligence operatives who have stolen sensitive government and commercial information, including through illegal hacking.

The pair of cases also comes on the heels of another insider-threat prosecution tied to the US military, with the Justice Department in April arresting a Massachusetts Air National Guardsman on charges of leaking classified military documents about Russia’s war in Ukraine and other sensitive national security topics on Discord, a social media platform popular with people playing online games.

US officials said the cases exemplify China’s brazenness in trying to obtain insight into US military operations.

“Through the alleged crimes committed by these defendants, sensitive military information ended up in the hands of the People’s Republic of China,” said US Attorney Randy Grossman for the Southern District of California. He added that the charges demonstrate the Chinese government’s “determination to obtain information that is critical to our national defense by any means, so it could be used to their advantage.”

Jinchao Wei, a 22-year-old sailor assigned to the San Diego-based USS Essex, was arrested Wednesday while boarding the ship. He is accused of passing detailed information on the weapons systems and aircraft aboard the Essex and other amphibious assault ships that act as small aircraft carriers.

Prosecutors said Wei, who was born in China, was approached by a Chinese intelligence officer in February 2022 while he was applying to become a naturalized US citizen, and admitted to the officer that he knew the arrangement could affect his application. Even so, at the officer’s request, Wei provided photographs and videos of Navy ships, including the USS Essex, which can carry an array of helicopters, including the MV-22 Ospreys, according to an indictment unsealed Thursday.

The indictment alleges Wei included as many as 50 manuals containing technical and mechanical data about Navy ships as well as details about the number and training of Marines during an upcoming exercise.

Wei continued to send sensitive US military information multiple times over the course of a year and even was congratulated by the Chinese officer once Wei became a US citizen, Grossman said. He added that Wei “chose to turn his back on his newly adopted country” for greed.

The Justice Department charged Wei under a rarely-used Espionage Act statute that makes it a crime to gather or deliver information to aid a foreign government.

After pleading not guilty in San Diego, Wei was assigned a new public defender who declined to comment following the hearing. Wei did not visibly react when read the charges.

Assistant US Attorney Fred Sheppard told the judge that Wei had passed information to Chinese intelligence as recently as two days ago. He said Wei, who also went by the name Patrick Wei, told a fellow sailor in February 2022 that he was “being recruited for what quite obviously is (expletive) espionage.”

Sheppard said Wei has made $10,000 to $15,000 in the past year from the arrangement with the unnamed Chinese intelligence officer. If convicted, he could face up to life in prison.

The officer instructed Wei not to discuss their relationship, to share sensitive information and to destroy evidence to help them cover their tracks, officials said.

The Justice Department also charged sailor Wenheng Zhao, 26, based at Naval Base Ventura County, north of San Diego, with conspiring to collect nearly $15,000 in bribes from a Chinese intelligence officer in exchange for US naval exercise plans, operational orders and photos and videos of electrical systems at Navy facilities between August 2021 through at least this May.

The information included operational plans for a large-scale US military exercise in the Indo-Pacific region, which detailed the location and timing of naval force movements.

The Associated Press was unable to reach the federal public defender assigned to Zhao, who pleaded not guilty in Los Angeles.

The indictment further alleges that Zhao photographed electrical diagrams and blueprints for a radar system stationed on a US military base in Okinawa, Japan.

Prosecutors say Zhao, who also went by the name Thomas Zhao, also surreptitiously recorded information that he handed over. If convicted, Zhao could face a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.

It was unclear if federal officials were looking at other US sailors and if the investigation was ongoing.

At the Pentagon, Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters that, “I think we have clear policies and procedures in place when it comes to safeguarding and protecting sensitive information. And so, if those rules are violated, appropriate action will be taken.” He declined to discuss any specifics of the cases.

US Attorney Grossman said the charges reflect that China “stands apart in terms of the threat that its government poses to the United States. China is unrivaled in its audacity and the range of its maligned efforts to subvert our laws.”

He added that the US will use “every tool in our arsenal to counter the threat and to deter China and those who have violated the rule of law and threaten our national security.”



Washington Rejects ‘Chinese Influence’ in Panama Canal

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, with Panama Canal Authority Administrator Ricaurte Vasquez, and Southcom Commander Navy Adm. Alvin Holsey during a tour of the Panama Canal’s Miraflores Locks in Panama City, Tuesday, April 8, 2025. (AFP) 
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, with Panama Canal Authority Administrator Ricaurte Vasquez, and Southcom Commander Navy Adm. Alvin Holsey during a tour of the Panama Canal’s Miraflores Locks in Panama City, Tuesday, April 8, 2025. (AFP) 
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Washington Rejects ‘Chinese Influence’ in Panama Canal

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, with Panama Canal Authority Administrator Ricaurte Vasquez, and Southcom Commander Navy Adm. Alvin Holsey during a tour of the Panama Canal’s Miraflores Locks in Panama City, Tuesday, April 8, 2025. (AFP) 
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, with Panama Canal Authority Administrator Ricaurte Vasquez, and Southcom Commander Navy Adm. Alvin Holsey during a tour of the Panama Canal’s Miraflores Locks in Panama City, Tuesday, April 8, 2025. (AFP) 

The United States will not allow China to “threaten” the operations of the Panama Canal, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned adding that his country does “not seek war with China” but will act to deter Chinese “threats” in the Americas.

“We do not seek war with China...But together, we must prevent war by robustly and vigorously deterring China's threats in this hemisphere,” Hegseth said on the second day of his visit to Panama, whose canal is at the center of a row between China and the United States.

“Today, the Panama Canal faces ongoing threats,” Hegseth said in a speech at a police station located at the entry to the shipping route.

“The United States of America will not allow communist China or any other country to threaten the canal's operation or integrity,” he added.

US and Chinese firms fight for business on the waterway after President Donald Trump threatened to seize it.

His administration has vowed to “take back” control of the interoceanic waterway that the United States funded, built and controlled until 1999.

A Hong Kong company operates two ports at either end of the canal connecting the Atlantic and Pacific, through which five percent of all global shipping passes.

“I want to be very clear. China did not build this canal. China does not operate this canal. And China will not weaponize this canal,” Hegseth said, calling it a “wonder of the world.”

Speaking after a meeting with President Jose Raul Mulino, Hegseth added that the US and Panama together would “take back the Panama Canal from China's influence” and keep it open to all nations, using the “deterrent power of the... most lethal fighting force in the world.”

He claimed that China's control of critical infrastructure in the canal area gave Beijing the power to conduct spying activities across Panama, making the Central American nation and the United States “less secure, less prosperous and less sovereign.”

Shortly after the meeting, the Chinese Embassy in Panama issued a statement refuting Hegseth's claim, labeling it as “not at all responsible or founded.”

“China has never taken part in the management or operation of the Panama Canal, nor has it interfered in issues” concerning the waterway, the statement said, calling on Washington to halt “blackmail” and “plundering” of Panama and other countries of the region.

It added that the United States “has orchestrated a sensationalist campaign based on the 'China threat theory' so as to undermine cooperation between China and Panama.”

“China has always respected Panama's sovereignty with regard to the canal,” the embassy said.

In March, CK Hutchison announced an agreement to sell 43 ports in 23 countries -- including its two on the canal -- to a group led by giant US asset manager BlackRock for $19 billion in cash.

A furious Beijing has since announced an antitrust review of the deal, which likely prevented the parties from signing an agreement on April 2 as had been planned.

Hegseth's visit to Panama comes two months after that of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Shortly after that visit Panama announced it was pulling out of Chinese President Xi Jinping's landmark global infrastructure program, the Belt and Road Initiative.